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Baseball in Nicaragua

For over a hundred years, baseball has been the most popular sport in Nicaragua. The country's love for this sport was started by a US retailer named Albert Addlesberg.

Albert had noticed that Caribbean coast residents, then under British occupation, were playing a confusing game, also known in the UK as cricket. He convinced two local cricket teams to convert to baseball and the country never looked back.

In 1887, Bluefields locals formed two teams called "Southern" and "Four Roses." The first official game was played the following year. While the original teams no longer exist, Nicaraguans founded a team in 1904 that continues to remain popular. Following a strange tradition to name sporting teams after ongoing conflicts, the team was dubbed â€śBĂłerâ€ť (the British had just finished fighting the Second BĂłer War with residents of South Africa). Later that year the â€śJapanâ€ť and â€śRussiaâ€ť teams were also formed, named after the Russo-Japanese War in Manchuria which would eventually lead to the Russian Revolution of 1905.

The arrival of US marines in 1912, during disputes over the building of a Nicaraguan Canal, had a large impact on baseball in the country. The marines brought both their knowledge of and enthusiasm for the sport, kicking off an influx of both foreign players and visiting professional teams. Local interest in the sport increased proportionally, culminating in the creation of La Liga NicaragĂĽense de Beisbol Profesional (LNBP) in 1956. Unfortunately, the league was disbanded in 1967 due to a lack of funding during the Anastasio Somoza GarcĂ­a dictatorship.

The professional league was re-established in 2004. Currently four teams - Indios del BĂłer, Tigres del Chinandega, Leones de LeĂłn and Fieras del San Fernando - compete for the yearly championship.

Over the years, Nicaragua has produced many Major Leaguers, including most notably Dennis MartĂ­nez after whom the national stadium is named, and its national team has been amongst the strongest in the world.